'MPs can't stop Donald Trump's state visit to the UK and they can't stop him coming to Parliament,' says MP Nigel Evans

MPs can't stop Donald Trump's state visit to the UK, and the President visiting does not mean we share his values, says Tory MP Nigel Evans.

Yesterday (February 20) MPs debated Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK, after a petition against his visit reached 1.85 million signatures and a petition in favour of his invitation gained 311,000 signatures.

Former deputy speaker of House of Commons Nigel Evans told Julia Hartley-Brewer that despite the debate, the state visit is not the decision of the House of Commons: "MPs can’t stop it and the fact is we couldn’t even stop him coming to Parliament – even that has a separate committee dealing with it."

Inviting Donald Trump to the UK "doesn’t mean we share all his values," he said. "We recognise we’ve got as the President a man who likes the United Kingdom," he added, and concluded that “we are leaving the European Union and it would be rather nice to have a trade deal."

Evans also said that people protesting against the state visit "can’t come to terms" with his Presidency, and these are the same people "who do not understand how we could possibly have decided to leave the European Union."